St Giles' Cathedral

St Giles’ Cathedral stands on Edinburgh’s High Street, its distinctive crown steeple a fixed point on the city’s skyline. A church has occupied the site since the 12th century — tradition dates a foundation to 1124 under David I — though the Gothic building seen today grew piecemeal between the 14th and early 16th centuries, as chapels were added one after another. The crown steeple, dated by its timbers to the 1460s, is one of only two medieval examples surviving in Scotland, its eight buttresses meeting to form an open stone crown. The church sat at the heart of the Scottish Reformation: John Knox first preached here in June 1559 and soon became its minister. In July 1637 the introduction of an English prayer book provoked a riot, remembered in the tale of Jenny Geddes hurling her stool at the dean — an episode that helped ignite the Covenanter movement. Charles I briefly raised St Giles’ to cathedral status in 1633; since 1689 it has served as a parish church of the Church of Scotland, keeping the cathedral title by custom. Later additions include the Thistle Chapel, built between 1909 and 1911 for the Order of the Thistle.